Expense Mattershttp://www.expensematters.com
ExpenseMatters : The Source for Expense ManagementMon, 13 Mar 2017 06:36:10 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.86778116Join us for the 4th Annual Expense Management CEO Lineup at GBTAhttp://www.expensematters.com/join-us-for-the-4th-annual-expense-management-ceo-lineup-at-gbta/
http://www.expensematters.com/join-us-for-the-4th-annual-expense-management-ceo-lineup-at-gbta/#respondTue, 12 Jul 2016 18:12:46 +0000http://www.expensematters.com/?p=1119For those executives making the trip next week to Denver for the 2016 Global Business Travel Association conference, make sure you come participate in the Annual Expense Management CEO Lineup session. It will be held on Wednesday at 11am, in room Mile High BR 2A-3A, just prior to the 12:30pm keynote by NASA astronaut Captain Scott Kelly.

Cary Strange, SVP of PEX & Managing Director of ExpenseMatters, will be moderating the panel discussion. He will be joined by Alan Rich (CEO Chrome River), David Barrett (CEO Expensify), and Pascal Paradis-Théberge (Founder of Nexonia).

The giant ride-hailing service Uber has spent many years building a perfect transportation alternative to public taxis. Now, Uber making it easier for business travelers and has teamed up with Concur, Expensify, Chrome River and Certify, some of the world’s leading expense reporting software companies, to launch its ‘Auto Expense’ tool. The new tool automatically sends a copy of the Uber receipt to the expense management company for reimbursement. This helps Uber customers separate their personal and work rides, helping them save time and money.

This tool is a part of Uber’s venture called Uber for Business. Uber for Business allows employees to use a company credit card for billing their rides as opposed to using individual company cards. With nearly 1 million people activating business profiles, business travel has become the transportation provider’s fastest growing segments.

According to Max Crowley, who is leading the project, providing customers the ability to automatically submit receipts for expense reimbursement is a giant step forward in increasing customer satisfaction and in making trips seamless. Uber for Business will provide travel managers a dashboard for greater visibility on their employee’s expenses, streamlining workflow.

Lyft not Far Behind with ‘Lyft for Work’

Not far behind, Lyft, Uber’s competitor has announced the launch of its new program. ‘Lyft for Work’ is a new venture that is designed for, you guessed it, business folks. Participating firms can issue their workers a monthly credit balance for work-travel purposes. This streamlines employees using Lyft, as they no longer have to file expense reports or wait for reimbursements once they have paid for a work ride from their own pocket. Employees can easily link the Lyft app to their work email and then verify their organization. The bill will automatically be directed to the company’s account.

This drastically streamlines works, saving time for both employees and the accounting staff. All employees have to do is set their desired location using the app and request the payment method before hitching a ride. The app automatically defaults personal payment method on the record, preventing employees from accidentally billing personal rides to the company.

The two companies are head to head with each other and already have several competing services. It is still unclear which of the two companies thought of the idea first as Lyft has pointed out in their press release that the service was a part of their company’s mission plan for days.

]]>http://www.expensematters.com/uber-lyft-make-it-easier-to-upload-those-darn-receipts/feed/01111ExpenseMatters leads Annual GBTA Expense CEO Session with Leading Expense Management Firmshttp://www.expensematters.com/expensematters-leads-annual-gbta-expense-ceo-session-with-leading-expense-management-firms/
http://www.expensematters.com/expensematters-leads-annual-gbta-expense-ceo-session-with-leading-expense-management-firms/#respondMon, 13 Jul 2015 12:00:48 +0000http://www.expensematters.com/?p=1116For people who wish to ask questions and learn more about expense management from the industry’s top CEOs, the GBTA convention is the perfect opportunity to do so. The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) is the voice of the world’s leading travel companies today. The events aim to bring the most well-known business travel professionals under one roof. Most of the nation’s most reputable expense vendors attend their events.

As part of the conference, Expense Matters will be hosting an informative Question and Answer session. Cary Strange, Managing Director of ExpenseMatters and SVP of PEX, will lead the panel. Accompanying him on the panel will be Alan Rich, CEO of Chrome River, Chris Farrell, CEO of Tallie, and Neil Wainwright, CEO of Nexonia.

The panelists will answer questions from the audience participants via social media. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to directly communicate with the CEOs of several of the world’s most esteemed expense companies. The title of the session is ‘Get Inside the Mind of an Expense Management CEO – Q&A, Innovation and Insights from the Nation’s Leading Expense Management Firms.’

In the session, the CEOs will explore some of the innovation that is happening in the industry and talk to some of the industry CEOs about how they are meeting the needs of their customers.

The expense management industry happens to be one of most mature industries in the world. More companies are growing rapidly, bringing forth new ideas and unique innovations. These tech firms aim to cater to the needs of large and small organizations with respect to expense management.

]]>http://www.expensematters.com/expensematters-leads-annual-gbta-expense-ceo-session-with-leading-expense-management-firms/feed/01116Lawmakers Using Campaign Funds to Cover Personal Expenses Now a Common Practicehttp://www.expensematters.com/lawmakers-using-campaign-funds-to-cover-personal-expenses-now-a-common-practice/
http://www.expensematters.com/lawmakers-using-campaign-funds-to-cover-personal-expenses-now-a-common-practice/#respondTue, 07 Jul 2015 14:00:05 +0000http://www.expensematters.com/?p=1098In New York state, a review conducted by the Associated Press has found that lawmakers have used campaign funds to cover a variety of personal expenses, including gasoline, car repairs, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in un-itemized credit card bills.

Determining exactly how much lawmakers have spent on personal expenses has proven to be virtually impossible due to a lack of transparency in regards to how they track or manage those expenses and rather weak campaign finance laws. Under those laws, lawmakers are able to pay bills with the use of campaign donations without providing any details.

Among the largest of such expenses are un-itemized credit card bills. According to the AP, candidates in New York accumulated approximately $1.6 million in campaign-related expenses over the past decade. While some lawmakers did detail what the charges were used for, that was only the case in a small number of instances. Sen. John Flanagan was found to have charged $90,000 alone over the past 10 years.

Another area of contention relates to travel expenses. While lawmakers are also able to receive reimbursements for expenses when they travel to the state Capitol, it has been found that many lawmakers still make use of campaign funds to cover auto and gasoline expenses. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie was recently found to have received more than $20,000 in travel reimbursements in 2014. Over the last 10 years, Heastie’s campaign spent some $22,000 at Bronx mechanic.

More Lawmakers under Fire for Improper Use of Funds

Heastie is not the only lawmaker to come under criticism for the improper use of funds. In Oklahoma, the Better Business Bureau of Tulsa recently alleged that Sen. Rick Brinkley embezzled more than $1 million from the BBB during the 15 years he served as the organization’s president and chief operating officer.

According to a recent lawsuit filed by the BBB, Brinkley allegedly established corporate entities in order to receive payments for fraudulent credit card accounts as well as other expenses for the purposes of paying his personal credit card invoices, pool cleaner, and mortgage. It was further alleged that Brinkley accepted cash advances for business trips that he never actually made by drawing on the BBB’s line of credit and then falsifying records in an effort to hide his actions. Brinkley, who served as CEO and president of the BBB from 1999 to 2011 as chief operating officer, was fired from his position as chief operating officer earlier this year. According to Brinkley’s campaign expenditures, he paid almost $50,000 to the Better Business Bureau earlier this year, although exactly why he made the payment remains unclear. The current lawsuit is seeking more than $10,000 for civil relief.

New rules have recently been adopted that would make it more difficult for legislators to claim fraudulent repayments. Given the number of lawmakers under fire for the fraudulent use of campaign expenses, there still is clearly room for campaign fund reform.

]]>http://www.expensematters.com/lawmakers-using-campaign-funds-to-cover-personal-expenses-now-a-common-practice/feed/01098Scaling New Heights 2015, in New Orleans – Watch out Bourbon Streethttp://www.expensematters.com/scaling-new-heights-2015-in-new-orleans-watch-out-bourbon-street/
http://www.expensematters.com/scaling-new-heights-2015-in-new-orleans-watch-out-bourbon-street/#respondTue, 07 Jul 2015 13:15:56 +0000http://www.expensematters.com/?p=1100Scaling New Heights is a technical training conference hosted by Woodard Events for Intuit products. There is over 100 hours of training for Intuit programs and applications and sessions to get you closer to being a certified advisor for QuickBooks. The official conference ran from Saturday, June 20th to Wednesday. Five whole days packed with training and guest speakers and four whole nights packed with the New Orleans night life. With such an inviting program ExpenseMatters packed up and hit the big easy with the rest of the nations accountants.

Sunday, the first day of the Intuit programs started off with a meandering morning. First time attendees received an orientation mid morning followed by lunch which was the preamble to the first of the training sessions. Training’s ran to 4pm and concluded with an address from the MC for the week, Joe Woodard.

Joe Woodard is a published writer for QuickBooks and founded Woodard Consulting in 2003 to provide Intuit training nation wide and QuickBooks consulting locally. With a plethora of experience under his belt Woodard has become Intuits go-to man for product training.

On day three in the afternoon Joe Woodard hosted a session with multiple key speakers, one of them being David Barrett the found of Expensify whose passion is making expense reports easy. David Barrett had joined Joe to talk about data automation – his higher calling.

Chris Farrell also showed up in New Orleans to facilitate a three part workshop to prep conference attendees to become certified at SpringAhead and Tallie expense reporting. The first two sections that Farrell focused on was about using SpringAhead time keeping. He then moved into how to use Tallie in cooperation with QuickBooks.

Toffer Grant the founder of Pex Card offered some interviews at the conference. Grant told AccountingWEB the most inspiring thing this year in the profession was the adoption and integration of mobile applications and cloud based software for accounting solutions. But while Grant was doing the talking the rest of the conference was having a blast catching money at the Pex Card cash cube.

To wrap it all up Scaling New Heights announced it will be hosting the 2016 conference at Atlantis, yes, the lost city under the sea. Or the Casino – whichever is easiest to get to. Quick recommendation for all you conference goers next year, check out Potters Cay under the bridge on Nassau. It is hands down the best seafood!